Boks' tough guys Du Plessis, the Enforcer and the Bone Collector gear up to intimidate England at Twickenham

The Bismarck may have been sunk by injury and the Beast may be burdened by heart trouble but South Africa remain a team built on intimidation.

The so called Bone Collector in the considerable shape of No 8 Willem Alberts is still in the business of collecting opposition trophies while young Eben Etzebeth, aka The Enforcer, a sinister title freely used even by coach Heyneke Meyer, is establishing a reputation for, well, enforcing.

Scarey names, scarey people.

The Enforcer: Eben Etzebeth is one of the more intimidating members of the South Africa team

And what with the likes of English heavies Tom Wood and James Haskell talking up a storm about the likely confrontational nature of Saturday’s match at Twickenham we can assume the collisions will be thunderous.

'It is going to be massively physical.' Not one for the purist then, though it remains to be seen whether the big hitters manage to remain on the right side of propriety.

No one in rugby will need reminding of what happened when the two countries met at headquarters 10 years ago this month.

Jannes Labuschagne, who felled Johnny Wilkinson with a late shoulder charge, was lucky to be the only South African player shown a red card on an afternoon of cheap shots and calculated violence by the tourists.

Ice hockey fans know all about 'enforcers' or 'goons', terms for players whose task it is to dispense summary justice and sometimes injustice.

Etzebeth, already rated one of the world’s best locks, is better than that despite some obviously goonish behaviour in his fledgling career.

'If you’ve got the No 4 on your back you have to be an enforcer,' Etzebeth has said. 'Bakkies (Botha) did it and now it’s my turn. It’s part of my job.

No chance: Willem Alberts (right) is nicknamed the Bone Collector

'I need to let the opposition know I’m on the field.'

The Western Province forward did that alright when head butting veteran Australian lock Nathan Sharpe earlier this year. That cost the 21-year-old a couple of weeks on the sidelines.

'It’s not going to help me if I get a reputation for being that kind of a player, so I’ve learned my lesson,’ he remarked at the time.

We shall see. But Etzebeth is playing on Saturday only after an IRB disciplinary hearing on Tuesday night cleared him of an alleged eye-gouging incident against Scotland last weekend.

A different verdict might have excluded him from rugby for months, even years.

Although Alberts has maintained a decent disciplinary record, a few minutes perusing youtube highlights of his big hits shows that he can sometimes sail close to the red zone.

A bulldozer in attack and positively concrete in defence, he has already scored two tries against England, as a 'supersub' at Twickenham two years ago and in a man-of-the-match performance in the first test in Durban last summer.

Built on strength: Etzebeth (centre) and his Boks will hope to dominate England

Jannie du Plessis, South Africa’s tighthead rock and older brother of the aforementioned Bismarck, is no saint.

On the field, at least. Off the field, he just might be, and not because he was born in the Free State town of Bethlehem.

As a qualified doctor, he is one of very few active players in the professional era to have established a second career.

When he is not trying to remove the head of Aussie flanker David Pocock, Du Plessis regularly treats HIV sufferers in a clinic he operates at a Durban military hospital.

'Though I honestly never intended to injure him, I’d be talking bull if I said I did not want to hurt him,' Du Plessis admitted in the wake of his strongarm assault on Pocock in a Super Rugby match last year.

He would have needed all his medical powers if he had carried out the accompanying threat of breaking his opponent’s neck, expletive duly deleted.

And in April this year a slap on the face of Hurricanes flanker Karl Lowe precipitated a mass brawl and earned du Plessis an off-field yellow card.

No saint: Jannie du Plessis nailed Australia's David Pocock

'It’s dog eat dog,' Du Plessis said. 'All test matches are physical. I am still sore after Scotland. My shoulders are aching. Rugby is a contact, collision sport. The Third Test (against England in Port Elizabeth during the summer) was more like trench warfare.

'We are going to have to front up and be physical. England can front up. Their pack is physical and in Tuilagi they have an inside centre who can take it up against anyone.

'They are suited brilliantly to a physical game.'

A humble God-fearing farmer at heart, Du Plessis sounded as if he fears the National Anthem more than the English players.

'Some of our young guys have never played at Twickenham, a wonderful stadium and the home of rugby.

'It is going to be an incredible feeling running out and facing God Save The Queen. The anthem does not start slowly. It’s bang and you know you are in for a match.

Mix it with us: Manu Tuilagi can go up against anyone, says Du Plessis

'But this team is moulding together. They are good friends and reliable people. You know they will make their tackles, scrum their scrums and drive at line outs. That leads to a........'

For a moment, Du Plessis could find the word only in his native Afrikaans. He thought for a little while. ‘Synergy,’ he said.

The front row union would be ashamed of such eloquence.

Earlier on the Tour when asked to explain to a South African journalist the Afrikaans translation of a complicated medical bulletin on Tendai 'Beast' Mtawarira’s condition, Du Plessis grabbed the notebook and started drawing a detailed diagram of the heart.